How to Bend Guitar Strings Video Lecture | The Ultimate Guitar Course: From Beginner to Advanced - Class 6

there are many things in this world that
are meant to be bent like the strings on
a guitar or the banking rules for
International Finance other things you
should never bend under any circumstance
such as babies and the truth and I'm
about to hit you with some truth right
now about bending guitar strings so
basically what does it mean to bend a
string basically if you have like this
is just gonna be the 9th fret on the g
string right I can bend it to a
different pitch so if I bend it
I'm altering the pitch so this note is
an E if I bend it I can bend up to 1/2
or off to an F sharp sometimes I can
even bend it way up to like a G or
something like that but the main thing
to think about is how do you bend a
string a lot of times I'll see you may
be beginners try to bend with one finger
now that puts a lot of pressure on the
one finger and it's easy to get sloppy
when you're doing stuff like that so
rule number one is don't be a hero
use your entire hand have all your
fingers help when you bend a string
right a lot of times even like if you're
bending all these apply to an acoustic
guitar - I'm just using an electric car
because it's a little bit easier to demo
but acoustic guitar has thicker strings
so it might be a little harder to bend a
full step or two full notes on an
acoustic car but you can always get
thinner strings on electric or acoustic
if you really want to make bending your
thing right using nines nine gauge
strings i'm todd castro which other so
the number one thing to remember is to
bandit with multiple fingers see I have
my index my middle and my ring finger
all on the same string and I'm using all
of them another thing you might notice
is the actual angle of my wrist is
moving it's not just my fingers I mean
you can still get like a good
finger bend without using your wrist but
I find the muscle memory is a lot better
and you have more vibrato options - if
you kind of think of it as like a door
hinge right now a natural question you
might have do I bend the strings down or
do it bend the strings up if you can get
it sound good it really doesn't make a
difference but kind of a good loose rule
to follow is if you're talking about the
highest three strings Bend those up if
you're talking about the lower three
strings Bend those down the reason for
this is like for the E string right the
high E string if you bend it down you
can go off the fret board really easy
you can deal with the B string - now
it's so uncommon on the g string but you
know it can still happen same thing the
opposite is true like the a string it
sounds terrible when you bend it up and
off so rule of thumb for me I kind of
Bend the higher strings up and lower
strings down now there are exceptions to
this and for me specifically the way if
I'm ever playing and bending two strings
down at the same time like a Motorhead
type thing
that doesn't mean you can't bend it up
but for me if I'm bending two strings at
the same time I like to bend them down
now there is a tactical advantage to
bending the higher strings up which we
can talk about right now so let's take
the twelfth fret which is g on the g
string right now if i bend this up i
have all these strings beneath it but I
can still play right so while I have
this note bent up I can hit the B string
and the E string because I'm kind of
barring yeah I'm still using my fingers
to help out and then I can kind of rock
that note back down another really
important thing if you really want it to
sound good you kind of have to use your
face and make it seem like you're in
pain like for some reason it just makes
it sound better another really cool
thing you can do when you're bending up
is a thing called unison bends right now
a unison Bend is when you're bending one
note and equaling the pitch of a
different note so let's take let's take
that same twelfth fret right so I'm
betting a G and I want to bend up to an
a right now on the B string the a is a
tenth fret so if I that note is the same
as that note so if I bend this note up
to this note I have two of the same
notes at the same time
and you can kind of hear them resonating
with each other or slightly off if
they're really close Jimi Hendrix is
like a master of unison Benton's like
for example ah I think it's highway
child they're all kind of unison Benz
and now the most common place to do that
would be bending the g-string to the
same page of the b-string you can also
bend the B string to the same pitch of
the high E string but you have to start
one for a higher so you can Bend up
and if I were to bend down I can't
really do the same thing so there is a
tactical advantage to bending the
strings up now it can be kind of
intimidating to think of bending to a
certain pitch like if you don't have
perfect pitch or your ears might not be
as advanced like do I want to bend this
G note up to an A like what if I'm just
kind of flat what if I'm not there all
the time
really my advice is to not worry about
it too much and don't worry about having
to hit a certain note I think for me
personally a bending a note is really
more just kind of like bringing
attention to one part in like a solo or
a riff even if it's it's not let's just
say it's not unmusical if you're bending
it to a pitch that isn't technically in
Heilig if you're not bending this to a
perfect perfect pitch every time don't
get caught up on this because really
you're just kind of training your ears
and your hands to kind of get to the
pitch that you want like BB King was a
master of these kind of like micro
little bends or like like he's maybe not
bending it to a certain tone or semi
tone every time he's just really kind of
feeling it like blues players are really
good at that how it's not about what
note you're bending to it you're just
kind of manipulating a certain note and
drawing more attention to it therefore
making a solo more lively because
everything doesn't always have to be in
key and in tune every single time a lot
of times if you bend to a pitch that
might be unexpected it has like a really
cool effect and it draws a lot of
attention to a certain part of the solo
now unison bands can be a little bit
tricky because you kind of have to keep
one finger anchored to the B string if
you're doing it on a GM V string thing
while one finger moves so the tendency
might be to have them both move with
each other it takes a little bit of
practice but if you do it you'll get it
I think a really good place to just
start is actually on the second fret of
the g string and the B string because
what you're doing is you're gonna bend
this a to this note which is a B right
so if you double the same time
you can get the open B string to
resonate with this either you're bending
two of you so you don't have to worry
about keeping one finger stationary
while you the other one you actually
have an open string to help you out same
thing with the B string on the third
fret and the high E string I can bend
this D to e and kind of get them in the
same way so if you want to start with
unison bending that's a good way to do
it right there another cool thing you
can do is when you have a note bent up
to a higher pitch you can choke it off
right there so right I think the
tendency is to every time you bend come
back down right so it couldn't it
creates kind of a jarring effect like
Lynyrd Skynyrd was a really good band at
using kind of these bends that kind of
stopped at the top right like so really
kind of all these little techniques are
just great ways you can use it your
actual fingers to manipulate the tone
that you want to do so really just
remember to use multiple fingers you're
bending try to do unison bends try to
hit notes under what you're bending
while you have something up
and always remember that you can kind of
stop a note by doing that
and what I'm doing there is this I'm
taking my pick and I'm kind of stopping
her in here so I'm stopping the
vibration with my right hand
get it up stop it all right so to recap
have fun bending guitar strings to your
heart's desire but never ever bend a
baby or the truth